Author: Skip Moen, Ph.D.

  • Paul the Platonist? (1)

    For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 2 Corinthians 5:1-2 Earthly tent – Mas. Chagigah…

  • Mad Men and Zealots

    For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 2 Corinthians 5:13 NASB Beside ourselves – “You’re crazy! How can you believe things like that?” Ever heard this accusation leveled at you? “Why do you want to go back to the Law when you…

  • Ignoring the Truth

    For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10 NASB All – What do you suppose Paul meant when he said “we must all appear”? Do you…

  • Not Knowing What to Ask

    “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, . . . Isaiah 1:18 NASB Reason – There is a place where we are afraid to go. There is a place where we no longer have any sense of direction, where we know we don’t belong, where our lives hang on a silver spider…

  • Ordering Our Thoughts

    O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting. 1 Chronicles 16:34 NASB Good – Let’s read this verse in its literal Hebrew order. Hodu laYHVH ki tov ki leolam hasdo. Literally, “Thanks to YHVH for good for forever hesed his” (the pronoun is attached to the word). You…

  • A Psalm’s Story

    O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting. 1 Chronicles 16:34 NASB Give thanks – The story of this psalm is found in the chronicles of the kings. David receives the ark and offers sacrifices, installing Asaph and his line as priests. Then David offers this song. Its…

  • Life in the Garden

    This world is like an anteroom before the world to come. Prepare yourself in the anteroom so that you may enter the banquet hall. Rabbi Ya’akov, Pirke Avot 4:21 Prepare – “The nature of the afterlife has never been clear in Judaism.”[1] In contrast to the highly developed ideas of the afterlife in Christian literature…

  • Allusion

    “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24 NASB Spirit and truth – If you are familiar with the words of the Tanakh, you might hear this phrase differently. The combination of “truth” with another crucial Hebrew word is so common in the Hebrew Scriptures that you…